This card was one of the characters I obtained during my first night playing Star Wars: Destiny. At the time, I had no Starter Sets, and had simply attended a local tournament because the organizer had mentioned they’d be able to teach the game after the tournament. I was free for the evening so I figured I should go and learn what the game was all about. I pulled a Tie Pilot (SR4) from my first booster and had this one a little later on. Immediately, I knew I wanted to make a Jyn Erso (SR44) deck. She was a great lead character in one of my favorite Star Wars movies to date, and I was excited to test her out.
Now that I know a little more about Destiny, I know that she is a character that doesn’t really appear at all in the current meta. So let’s take a look at why she might be avoided, as well as what place her card might have in the future of Destiny.
Artwork
Nothing flashy to see here, Jyn has her blaster in one hand and the Death Star visible in the sky behind her. She is ready for business, prepared to land on Scarif in the stolen Rogue One shuttle. Presumably with Cassian and K-2SO in tow. As a fan of the movie, I really like the image here even though it isn’t flashy or impressive. Her extended alternate art card, given to those who demoed a game of Star Wars: Destiny during Celebration in April, is a much flashier card and one I’m hoping to snag at some point should her character pan out in a competitive deck.
Die Faces
The die faces are both Jyn’s greatest asset and her biggest detriment. She comes with two 2-ranged sides, a 1-discard side, a 2-discard side, a 1-resource side, and a blank. The blank is pretty standard and a resource side is always a nice thing to have on a character for those times in the game where you really need that extra boost to play a card or two for the turn. The problem comes with the other four sides. Is she supposed to be a ranged attacker, or is she supposed to help mill an opponent? She dips her toes in both of those areas, although most of the decks I’ve seen appear to build around the milling approach.
Ability
Her ability, on the surface, can be hit or miss depending on your deck and the cards you want to play. It reads: “The cost of the first Yellow event you play each round is decreased by 1”. We all love paying less for cards, and so her ability is saving those precious resources for those bigger, or other colored, cards in your hand. Your first Yellow event every round is cheaper, and those resources saved can really add up over the course of a longer game. There are some excellent Yellow control events out there, although a good number of them are already dirt cheap to begin with. But here is a brief rundown of a few possibilities:
Jyn’s ability allows you to play Rebel (SR112) for free, which makes it so that card from your discard pile is truly being played at a cheaper cost. She also allows you to play Cheat (SR143) for free, saving those resources for the card you bounce into your hand. Her ability will leave your opponents worried about cards like Shoot First (AW133) and Electroshock (AW159) even if you have no resources available so long as you haven’t played a Yellow event card that turn. More expensive events, such as Never Tell Me the Odds (SR115), become a little more affordable and will allow you to pull off those crazy dice combinations that other decks dream of rolling into.
Remembering that it is only the first Yellow event each turn can be a difference maker, as you wouldn’t want to accidentally play a 0-cost Yellow event at the beginning of your turn.
Once again, her ability pushes you toward more of a mill/control deck because many Yellow event cards are usually centered around controlling dice or removing cards.
Her health is adequate at 11, and her cost is really her biggest downside at 15/20. Her dice sides and ability are great assets, but it is hard to find a good companion to pair her with at that price.
Possible Combinations
Whether running Jyn with one dice or two, the best combinations you can dream up right now cap out at three dice. There are two combinations I’ve seen often, and two I have seen a few times together. We’ll explore all four of these briefly:
Rey
Jyn + Rey (AW38) is the type of pairing you might really want to see. They are the two strong female leads from the recent movies, so it makes sense to want to put them in the same deck. The problem here is that you fall just short of being able to run them both as elites. If Jyn was a 14/18, which seems better suited to her die and ability, then this might be the choice deck with Jyn. As it stands, only one of the two would be elite and who to run as elite really depends on which direction you want to go with the deck. The pairing of a melee with a ranged character can create headaches for both you and your opponent, and there are so many strong blue cards and Rey’s ability is powerful enough to carry any pairing. Putting upgrades with Redeploy on Rey will allow you to use her ability to its max and will force your opponent to focus on Rey instead of Jyn, but once Rey goes down those upgrades shift to Jyn. This makes running Jyn as the elite a little more appealing because most opponents will still be likely to focus on Rey first, and those Holdout Blasters (AW63) are the ideal upgrades since they have both Ambush and Redeploy.
Admiral Ackbar
One of the more common pairings is Elite Jyn with Admiral Ackbar (AW27). This might seem like an odd pairing at first glance, but there is some great synergy here in a mill-focused strategy. Ackbar’s ability forces your opponent to deal two damage to one of their characters any time they play or discard the last card in their hand. Ackbar comes with a 1-discard of his own, and add that to Jyn’s two sides with discard and you have a great combination here. Add in Ackbar’s 2-focus side and you can turn Jyn’s dice to bring out a 4-discard turn which almost ensures the damage will be hitting your opponent’s characters. Being able to chip away characters while milling makes this a perfect pairing, especially when you can bring Red cards like It’s a Trap! (AW107), Rearm (AW109), Leadership (AW141), and C-3PO (SR30) in your deck.
Padme Amidala
The other common pairing is Elite Jyn with Padme Amidala (AW48), and this one makes some sense. Going mono-Yellow allows you to really focus in on the control aspect with this deck, and there is ample control available. Because Padme has no damage sides of her own, your strategy needs to center around milling and control. I’ve been in games where I’ve been down to just Padme and…well, I imagine that most decks running a Padme end up with her being the last character standing. Her die sides aren’t great alone, but being able to roll a 2-focus can help get what you need while having a 1-discard and two special sides are nice. Her ability allows you to resolve that special to discard the top card of an opponent’s deck, or to pay a resource to discard the top two. That means the resources Jyn saves you each turn can be pumped directly into discarding your opponent’s cards before they ever draw them. Padme being a Yellow as well also means cards like Fast Hands (SR150), Second Chance (AW137), Con Artist (SR60), and Cunning (AW65) are all cards that will be usable in your deck no matter when you draw them since they require a Yellow character to be used.
Rebel Commando
The final combination I have seen, and one that I plan to explore myself, is placing an Elite Jyn with a Rebel Commando (SR28). These two characters have excellent synergy, both having a pair of ranged sides and the Commando has a 1-discard side. The interesting side is his Special, which enables you to pay a resource to remove an opponent’s die. I’ve seen some decks that focus on hitting an opponent fast and hard with these characters, rolling out and then claiming the Secret Facility (SR159) battlefield to resolve three ranged dice. There are plenty of cards, like Hit and Run (AW106) that can help build toward that fast strategy. But the approach I plan to take, and which I think might be more effective, is one that tries to balance all three strengths that Jyn can provide: hard-hitting damage, hand removal, and dice control. The idea would be blitzing damage early to remove the biggest threat character and then sitting back and controlling the flow of the game from that point on. This is one approach that will take a lot of fine-tuning and testing, but I think it has the potential to raise Jyn back onto the radar for the meta. She can excel in several areas, and with the right deck and approach she should be able to dabble in all of them to good effect.
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